Dilepton Signature of a First-Order Phase Transition

Understand

The search for a first-order phase transition in strongly interacting matter is one of the major objectives in the exploration of the phase diagram of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD).

• In the present work we investigate dilepton radiation from the hot and dense fireballs created in Au-Au collisions at projectile energies of 1-2 $A$GeV for potential signatures of a first-order transition.
• Toward this end, we employ a hydrodynamic simulation with two different equations of state, with and without a phase transition.
• The latter is constrained by susceptibilities at vanishing chemical potential from lattice-QCD as well as neutron star properties, while the former is implemented via modification of the mean-fields in the quark phase.